In modern countries such as the United States and Canada, the sink-mounted garbage disposal has become a common fixture in the sinks of homes and businesses. Essentially the disposal is a grinder affixed to a drain outlet under the sink which grinds food and materials thrown into the drain into material small enough to be flushed through the drainpipes.
Because disposals contain electric motors, gears, and have a strong housing, garbage disposal units tend to be heavy. Consequently, mounting a heavy device to the bottom end of a conventional sink flange adapted to engage the disposal requires a flange up to the task of both support and obtaining a waterproof seal. Conventionally, rotationally engaged sink drain flanges, which are engaged to both the sink and the garbage disposal, are employed to create a compression fit of the disposal to the sink, in a leak-proof engagement.
During the installation process, the plumber or installer of a sink-mounted disposal unit generally lays down upon his back with his head under the sink. While in this cramped uncomfortable position, the installer must then manipulate the disposal into place in the dark and tight space under the sink. While holding the heavy disposal elevated and perpendicular to the ground, the plumber must then accurately rotationally engage a pair of flanges to mount the disposal to the sink.
Conventionally, the engagement components employed in this mount have evolved a commonality amongst manufacturers. A majority of such garbage disposal units are engaged to the underside of a sink using triangular attachment ring engaged to drain-mounted flange which communicates through an aperture formed in the sink.
The attachment ring is actually an assembly which is formed of upper and lower ring components and a sink flange having a barrel portion. These ring components are removably engaged together by three screws. A centrally positioned aperture in both ring components allows insertion of the barrel portion of the sink flange through both the upper and lower ring components.
Engagement of the attachment ring assembly to the sink flange conventionally requires two people for what should be a one person job. During installation of the flange to the sink drain aperture, the sink flange is engaged through a sink opening and a circular ledge of the flange is pressed into a layer of plumber's putty pre-positioned on the upper surface of the sink. Once so positioned, with the distal end of the cylindrical flange descending through the sink opening and below the sink, another person is enlisted to hold the sink flange in place in the sink opening while the installer works from under the sink to engage the attachment ring assembly over the distal end of the sink flange.
The installer, during the attachment ring engagement, having slid the assembled attachment ring assembly over the distal end of the barrel portion of the flange, must subsequently engage an inwardly-biased snap ring or clip over a depression adjacent to the distal end of the sink flange. This snap ring, once so engaged, maintains the ring assembly engaged upon the flange. Thereafter, the three screws are tightened to pull upon and seal the ledge extending from the upper end of the sink flange into the plumber's putty surrounding the drain opening.
As can be surmised, the act of expanding an inwardly biased “C” clip or snap ring to a sufficient diameter to slide over the distal end of the barrel end of the flange to an engagement in the flange depression is an awkward task. To complicate matters, the installer is lying on his back, reaching upward from a position under the sink. As they must concurrently hold the ring assembly upon the distal end of the barrel end of the flange with one hand, this leaves only one other hand to accomplish this awkward task of expanding the snap ring and engaging it on the barrel of the flange.
All the while, the second person may be holding the top end of the flange in position. As a result, installers frequently endure numerous failures in their attempt to engage the snap ring upon the flange with only a single hand, while concurrently holding the sink assembly in place. As such, homeowners, as well as professional installers, can become frustrated to say the least, and homeowners may simply give up and call a plumber rather than handle the task themselves.
As a consequence of the state of the art, there exists an unmet need for a tool configured to hold the ring assembly in place, surrounding the middle portion of the descending barrel upon the flange. Such a tool should serve to position the ring assembly above the annular recess at the distal end of the barrel of the flange. Such a ring assembly holding tool should hold the ring assembly in place, without the snap ring or C-clip being installed, and thereby position it for allowing an easy access to the annular recess which is specifically adapted to engage the snap ring. Such a device as such, should provide a means to allow the user to employ two hands to expand and engage the snap ring within the recess, without the need to concurrently support the ring assembly.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the tool for a magnetic garbage disposal ring assembly engagement invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings nor the steps outlined in the specification. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways as those skilled in the art will readily and immediately ascertain from reading this application. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing other methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention which is a significant improvement to the task of engaging a garbage disposal flange to the ring assembly with a snap ring. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.